Today, I discovered a pretty big (about 0.5-0.75  acres) swamp/pond on the other side of the hill:

A marsh/pond in the forests of the Selkirk Mountains of N. Idaho - there be ducks here!

I was crawling around on a game trail on the shore, and not really paying attention, and suddenly scared a female duck up and didn’t have time to snap a photograph of her. But just as I was cursing myself for not having the camera ready, this guy popped up right in front of my face:

Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), full body shot

He’s a common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), and they tend to live near ponds and eat salamanders and frogs and insects, and whatnot. He was really calm, and let me sit there shooting pictures of him for about 4 minutes — fortunately the dogs were too busy mucking around in the swamp to notice me oddly staring at the ground for so long. Here’s a closeup:

Common Garter Snake, closeup of head, from left side

But you can tell when you’re in it, that if they’d just leave the forest alone out here, that this place would seed life back into the area really quickly, and make it into a rainforest again.

This is what the forest looks like in there:

A picture of the open forest in "Cedar Grove"

And here’s a picture of one of the many marshy areas that are in it, full of devils club and wild ginger:

Marshy area full of devils club and wild ginger, in "Cedar Grove"

Of course, the photos don’t do it justice …

And fortunately, right after I studied up, I was barraged with wildlife. For instance, just this morning when I went out with the dogs, I saw a herd of elk, a mother turkey with about 8 chicks, a moose running after the herd of elk, and 3 red-tailed hawks circling over the rocky forest nearby. The only thing I wasn’t able to get photos of was the baby turkeys — because I was forced to herd dogs, so they wouldn’t kill the chicks — but I got a few (admittedly poor) shots of them yesterday anyway. And I know where she nests now, so when Stassj gets back on Wednesday, I’m going to go without the dogs and get some closeups of her and the babies.

Anyhow, here’s some of my shots — we’ll start with the hawk, because these are the photos that I like the most (click on the photos for a larger version):

Red-tailed hawk in flight, looking at the camera and screeching

I’m pretty sure that this is a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), but my bird identification skills are still minimal. I’ll update this post when I’m able to make a positive ID.

Red-tailed Hawk, from below, wings fully spread.

There are several of these hawks in an area behind our place that is kind of open, with a lot of mossy/grassy areas full of boulders, and a bunch of big standing dead trees — somewhat healthy land, because it’s not owned by the state of Idaho and thus hasn’t been clearcut recently.

Red-tailed Hawk - sitting on a dead-tree framed by pines, with Roman Nose in background

And here’s a pair of hawks hunting together. Did you know that when red-tailed hawks find a mate, that they generally stick together for life afterwards?

Pair of red-tailed hawks, in flight, hunting together

Well, that’s it for the hawk, I’ll put up the elk and moose and turkeys in separate posts. I’ve also got a lot more photos of the hawk, so I’m going to create a separate page about them when I have time, and include some information on their ecological role, and some history folklore about them.

Here’s a few photos:

Cosmic running around on top of the cliff on our neighbor's land.

For the first few days, he was really scared to be away from home (his family lives in Olympia, WA) but he has gotten a lot more comfortable now, and him and Marvin are really enjoying each others’ company (when he’s not stepping on Marvin while he’s sleeping, or nipping constantly at Marvin’s face…).

Jesse in bed watching Cosmic play with Marvin

For the first couple of nights, Cosmic was shitting all over the floor every night, but he’s stopped now, so I don’t have to walk around with a lantern looking for turds before walking around anymore. He’s pooping outside now, and helping us build up some compost. (Here’s that dog/scat/bestiality porn you were promised)

Cosmic taking a shit in the woods and looking all sheepish.

It’s been really rainy and haily and snowy for the past week so Cosmic is getting a little bit of cabin fever. He spends a lot of time shredding up cedar bark, chasing his tail, chewing on bones, and pouncing on Marvin.

Cosmic with a piece of cedar bark between his paws

Cosmic loves snuggling with Marvin, and sometimes the feeling is mutual.

Cosmic and Marvin sleeping together in the bed.

Here’s Cosmic strutting around in a snowstorm, looking like a real mountain dog:

Cosmic walking around in a snowstorm.

Stassjy and Marvin found a bunch of antlers this winter, and you can tell that she's really happy about that.

Stassjy really enjoys them — and they made her wish that she could be a moose/deer thing … but she can’t digest the twigs

Is she a moose? Or a deer?

Marvin thinks this is really fucking weird.

Marvin's a little weirded out by his mom with a set of antlers.

Isn’t she a beautiful little deer?

Stassj showing off her new horn

Eyes rolled back in her head with pleasure!

Ahhhh that feels good.

Oh my goddy — there’s something creeping around on the roof!!!

Whats that on the roof?!?!?!?!?

It’s a deer/satyr roof gremlin!

Jesse/satyr on the roof

Stassj looking out mountains while out snowshoeing

Here’s me mesmerized by the fire in the stove:

Jesse tending the fire

Here’s a picture of a tree I took while I was hiking with the pups …

Mossy tree

Stassj made me live under the porch for about 3 weeks, and I didn’t have any food the whole time, except for old beetles and cocoons … this is when she finally let me out, and I got into the cabbage box:

Cabbage Muncher